Suspension dampers of this kind generally comprise a tube filled with working fluid, inside of which a slidable piston assembly is placed. The piston assembly is attached to a piston rod led outside the damper through a piston rod guide, and comprises a piston with rebound and compression valve assemblies, which control the flow of working fluid passing through the piston assembly during the rebound and the compression stroke of the damper. A base valve assembly located at the end of the tube of the damper opposite to the piston rod and provided with separate rebound and compression valve assemblies controls the flow of working fluid passing in and out of a compensation chamber, commonly formed between the inner and the outer tube of the damper. Each valve assembly usually comprises a stack of resilient disks, often supported by an additional compression spring, which cover the flow passages of the assembly and act as one way valve, deflecting or moving under the pressure of working fluid to allow or block its flow.
Typical damper characteristics of damping force vs. piston velocity is a trade-off between improvement of the car handling properties and reduction of the unwanted car vibrations (a so called NVH-Noise, Vibration, Harshness requirements). Although dampers featuring low compression forces with degressive characteristics are desired to improve passengers comfort, during severe road and/or drive conditions they also often lead to maximally admissible wheel-knuckle displacements in the direction of damper compression leading to a suspension closure or jounce bumper engagement, which in turn may affect the car safety, comfort, durability and noise issues.
There are known dampers in the art in which the damper compression force increases rapidly after reaching a certain velocity of the piston relative to the damper tube.
An exemplary damper of this type, disclosed in patent specification EP 1 215 414, comprises a valve body fixed to the piston rod and urged away from a valve seat surface formed on the piston by a spring. The valve body has a conical surface which moves toward the valve seat surface as a function of dynamic pressure of working fluid, bearing against the circular valve seat surface and making a linear contact in a closed position. The valve body is made of a plastic material and its outer diameter corresponds to the diameter of the damper tube. To prevent undefined leakage flows the valve body is sealed to the piston rod.
Another damping unit of this type, to be employed in particular for damping the movement of the vehicle steering device, is disclosed in patent specification EP 0 409 094. The unit comprises two annular valve members allocated to each side of valve seat faces of the piston and urged towards the respective opening positions by a plurality of compression springs provided within axial bores of the piston, wherein at least one face of a pair of the piston valve seat face and the valve face allocated to each other is provided with axial projections and recesses, which in a damping position provide a restricted flow communication for working fluid.
Yet another damper having an additional damper valve is disclosed in patent specification EP 1 538 367. The damper comprises a multipart control slide with a pressure-actuated surface, which can move in a closing direction to close a throttle, where the throttle point is determined by the outside diameter of the control slide and an inside wall of the damper tube. The control slide of this invention must be manufactured very precisely in order to achieve its proper operation, and to minimize this issue it has a plastically deformable adjusting area.
Similar dampers utilizing technical means substantially analogous to the ones above-mentioned have been also disclosed in patent specifications U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,523 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,671.